Turbine bursts into flames showering debris all around

A WIND turbine in North Ayrshire caught fire at the height of yesterday’s storms in a dramatic moment captured on camera by eyewitness Stuart McMahon.

Mr McMahon saw the fire break out from his house in Adrossan and rushed outside to take a photograph.

He said: “It was certainly a pretty spectacular sight. My wife was upstairs in the bedroom and called me up about 3:40pm.

“As soon as I saw it, I grabbed the camera and ran outside. The turbines had been stationary all day because of the wind.

“I just looked at it and thought, ‘wow!’ I just stood and watched to see if it was going to explode or if anything else was going to happen.

“Something definitely did fly through the air but the fire brigade were there within ten minutes and had the fire out."

Another resident, Tom Young, caught the blaze on video. He said: “Loads of fire engines and police have been called out, but the fire was out pretty quickly. It was quite spectacular to say the least.”

Fire officers created an exclusion zone around the turbine to make sure no-one was caught by flying debris. However, the blaze blew itself out before they arrived.

Group commander Brian Winter, of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service, said 18 firefighters were sent to the incident and that debris falling from the turbine was carried by the winds “a considerable distance”.